[Quiltman]

Seasider,Putting the clutch down when starting is a USA thing. Once,years ago i was in San Francisco and my mate said I could borrow his car to pop down the donut shop. It was a manual Honda civic. I spent 20 minutes trying to get the b****y thing started, my mate comes out and WHOOF ,away it goes. Only then did he say "you did put the clutch down didn't you?" The story goes that a few California housewives had gotten new manual shift cars,parked them in multi storey carparks ,left them in gear, started up and went over the guardrails!! The State of California decreed that all new manual cars had to have the "clutch safety lock" in future. On my last visit to the States -2009 -I rented a manual sports car and had to dip the clutch to start it. Just thought you'd like to know.

Looks like KIA decided it was cheaper to leave the clutch lock on the UK versions.

 

[Seasider]

Quiltman - I like that I can understand why now!


This incident echoes another in the mid 90's my girlriend bought a Fiesta Mk4 from Polar Ford in York she drove it back and left it parked outside our flat. Next day she couldn't start it. Neither couldI the car ticked over but wouldn't fire and I was running out of ideas especiallywhen Iasked aboutfuel she said the indicator was showing a full tank. Eventualy I took thefiller cap off and shook the car and I could hardly hear anything so went off in my own car and collected 5 litres from the garage popped that in the tank and it fired up straight away. So obviously it had run out during the trip back but what was the problem with the fuel gauge? - well instead of being in the old place on the right hand side of the odometer as in the previous model it was now on the left hand side and was completely the mirror image of the guage before.So the needle was actually showing empty correctly (there was no numbers just bars on the dial) but she was reading it as full, you've gotta laugh!




Edited by: Seasider

 

[kia ora]

Contacted Kia UK Customer Services today to try and get an update on where my petrol FE is as the 4-6 weeks delivery quoted has come and gone. Missed the callback but the message onmy answerphone left says it will be another 6-8 weeks before it'll arrive

I think I'll look at my options elsewhere. This was to be my first ever Kia, but I'm very disappointed in all of this

 

[acedj81]

hi all.
i ordered my diesel fe. on 8 august from longstone kia in ediburgh.still not arrived,dealer says he does not have a delivery date.kia customer services told me end of november.i will wait till then ,after that will cancel.

 

[belgrave]

Hi acedj81,
What was your colour choice ?

 

[acedj81]

techno orange

 

[belgrave]

That's where the delay is - you could have had silver or, at a push, black by end of September.

 

[Issy]

Belgrave

How did you find that out?

 

[acedj81]

when is techno orange due in uk then
thanks

dd

 

[belgrave]

I bought one from Longstone !! - silver FE diesel

 

[belgrave]

Sorry - don't know when the techno's are due but as you have experienced they're very popular.

 

[Cass24]

I dont understand why there is such a crazy delay! I understand the orange is popular but my dealer said there were allocated 2 of each colour (Black, Silver, Orange and another) and they had those to sell so surely Kia had already allocated and decided what they were making before any of this already started!

Its driving me nuts, everywhere I go I see billboards with the car on it in orange that none of us seem to be able to get!

Has anyone actually got an orange one yet? I know my dealer had their FE Petrol in orange a few weeks ago.

CAss

 

[audioslim]

I think there was a shipment of Techno's that all got damaged, which would add up to the delay on Techos.
Mentioned somewhere around here.



Slim

 

[jules]

We all get told different stories. My dealer only "confirmed" the damage story when I said I'd read on here about one getting damaged. I'm starting to get the impression that if I'd said they'd been stolen, they'd have told me that was true as well.

 

[Cass24]

Yeah I have just rung Kia customer services again for an update and just been told another 6 - 8 weeks for the car to arrive. He said that they have stopped making them now as the next model is underway, but they have got to test them all etc so expected within the country in approx 6 weeks. Said it will take up to 10 days to arrive at the dealer. So if we hit the six weeks add 10 days it will be the day before xmas eve! Then it needs to be licence plated etc... I am not holding out much hope now for before xmas

The guy told me that there were 9 cars that were damaged in shipment so that is true.

He also told me that if it doesnt come till after Jan 2011 they will keep the VAT at 17.5% and it wont be increased!! Oh how very kind of them! lol

The whole thing is making me feel quite miserable and disheartened about it all! If I didn't love this car so much I would have cancelled weeks ago.

I am living on the small bit of hope that they are just feeding me worse casescenarioto ensure that I cant go back to them and say "you said 2 weeks and its not here!!". Fingers crossed it just arrives early and all the worries will be over!

Cass

 

[jules]

I simply do not believe anything we've been told so far. From what I know about making cars, including paint dry time etc it takes at absolute most 4 days to build a car from start to finish on a modern production line. It does not take 6 to 8 weeks for a transporter to get from Slovakia to the United Kingdom. Look on a map! If there was a damaged batch, the replacements *should* have been bumped straight to the front of the queue... the fact that they obviously weren't, and given that there are standard models (eg 1.7 non first edition) in stock at several dealers *right now*, tells me that the problem must be some kind of parts shortage. I know that there was an issue with the 2l diesel engines (see Hyundai threads on Honest John's forum) - this is stinking of that.

The bottom line is this... Having ordered in August, and having been told to expect delivery by the end of September, I find it unbelievable that in this day and age, Kia UK aren't able to commit to a specific delivery date for us yet.

 

[jules]

God I wish someone from Kia would just acknowledge how much of a pain in the backside this is, and how it has completely and utterly taken every last ounce of pleasure from the prospect of buying this car!

 

[belgrave]

It seems that the production problems at the plant are causing delays for both Kia and Hyundai - they're quoting up to eight weeks but I would guess it is nearer 12 !!!


See comments from those waiting at :-



http://...honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=85293

 

[belgrave]

This should get you there !!



http://...honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=85293

 

[Issy]

If you do a google news search there are so many posts explaining that the FEs have now been discontinued because the full range has launched. Presume if we all have orders it's going to be ok. But does make me worry.